Ottoman Navy

The Ottoman Navy was the navy of the Ottoman Empire, existing from 1323 to 1923. The navy was founded after the Ottoman capture of the port of Praenetos (Karamursel) from the Byzantine Empire, and the port would become the nucleus of the Ottoman navy. The Ottoman Navy would take part in numerous expeditions and conquests, particularly in warfare against Spain, Portugal, and the Republic of Venice, and it was assisted by the Barbary Corsairs and other Turkish pirates. After the 1571 Battle of Lepanto, Ottoman naval supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea was destroyed, and the Ottoman defeat at the 1827 Battle of Navarino effectively annihilated their naval capabilities until 1908. With assistance from the German Empire, the ruling Young Turks would rebuild the Ottoman navy as a modern fighting force, and the Ottoman Navy competed with the Imperial Russian Navy in the Black Sea and with the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean during World War I. In 1918, after the war's end, the Ottoman Navy was drastically reduced in size by the Triple Entente, and the navy was dissolved in 1923 when the Republic of Turkey was declared.